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THE RUBBER GENE, isoprene synthase, has only been identified so far in rubber trees. Typically plant genes are cumbersome to insert into microorganisms, but synbio engineering has provided a solution to make isoprene. Genencor, together with Goodyear, are working on making natural rubber using synthetic biology by fermentation. " " http://lnkd.in/dFVG-W8 View in LinkedIn

NATURAL RUBBER PRICED BY OIL. "Close to 21 million tons of rubber were produced in 2005, of which approximately 42% was natural. Since the bulk of the rubber produced is of the synthetic variety, which is derived from petroleum, the price of natural rubber is determined, to a large extent, by the prevailing global price of crude oil."" " http://lnkd.in/dvdJA9y View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC VS NATURAL RUBBER. Natural rubber comes from rubber trees, and has superior properties; chemically synthesized rubber comes from petroleum byproducts. "About 15 billion kilograms of rubbers are produced annually, and of that amount two thirds is synthetic. Global revenues generated with synthetic rubbers are likely to rise to approx. US$56 billion in 2020."" " http://lnkd.in/dQXAWu7 View in LinkedIn

RUBBER, A LIMITING RESOURCE. Rubber was a limiting strategic material in WWI. "The production of synthetic rubber in the United States expanded greatly during World War II, since the Axis powers controlled nearly all the world's limited supplies of natural rubber. The U.S. government launched a major (and largely secret) effort to improve synthetic rubber production. By 1944, a total of 50 factories were manufacturing synthetic rubber, pouring out...twice that of the world's natural rubber production before the beginning of the war."" " http://lnkd.in/dQXAWu7 View in LinkedIn

RARE METALS BOTTLENECK. "Modern technology is too reliant on rare materials whose scarcity could drastically set back innovation, a new report has warned. It suggested that as more and more devices are manufactured, supplies of key elements, particularly metals, will be strained."" " http://lnkd.in/ddSrbPU View in LinkedIn

SQUALENE ANNUAL DEMAND is some 1,000-2,000 tons. And it reportedly takes 3,000 deep sea shark livers to make a ton -- so 6 million per year for squalene, of the over 100 million total slaughtered annually. Amyris began selling Neosane Sqalene in 2010 made by Synbio, its first commercial product, with scale up in 2011 financed by the Brazilian Development Bank. " " http://lnkd.in/dakXcKX View in LinkedIn

SHARK SQUALENE. "The most abundant source of squalene is from the livers of deep sea sharks to be found at depths of as much as 1,500 metres. It occurs in Shark liver oils as the major component, comprising up to 85% of the oil. Squalene is not found in sharks living at shallow sea levels."" " http://sharksqualene.com/ View in LinkedIn

SQUALINE FROM SHARK LIVER helps support the 100 million sharks massacred annually to support its use in cosmetics, especially moisturizers, and in some vaccines. Efforts including the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab are underway to make squalene by synthetic biology fermentation." " http://lnkd.in/d3BfRtN View in LinkedIn

SYNBIO DEBATE is a replay of when synthetic chemists discovered modern dyes. In trying to synthesize quinine from aniline in 1856, William Perkin accidentally discovered Aniline Purple, and started the synthetic dye industry. "These advances led to the explosive growth of the German and Swiss dye industry, while simultaneously dismantling the import of indigo and other natural dyes from distant tropical locales. The shift from tropical artesanal sources to western synthesized dyes was complete." Economic evolution." " http://lnkd.in/dqHXeRT View in LinkedIn

CONTROVERSY ABOUT SYNBIO products, such as the flavoring vanilla and the malaria drug artemisinin (both from Amaris in California) is based on arguments about safety and destroying the jobs of indigenous peoples. In the case of vanilla extract, the vast majority of currently marketed products are made from unsustainable petroleum byproducts. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported the artemisinin work, only after careful study of its benefits, convinced that it would even out the cyclical devastating crashes in production resulting in 100 million malaria patients without drug access. View in LinkedIn